Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman speaks at a ceremony marking the 26th anniversary of the L'Ambiance Plaza collapse held at City Hall, in Bridgeport, Conn., April 23rd, 2013. 28 workers were killed in the 1987 construction accident.
Photo: Ned Gerard

Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill addresses the nearly one hundred new citizens at the Citizenship Ceremony for New Americans at the Klein Auditorium in Bridgeport, Conn. on Thursday, December 12, 2013.
Photo: Brian A. Pounds

State Senator Toni Boucher (R-26) says the taxes are too high in Connecticut. Boucher joined State Senator Scott Frantz (R-36) and State Rep Tom O'Dea (R-125) at a town hall meeting held at the Lapham Center in New Canaan on Thursday night, Oct. 17, 2013.
Photo: Tyler Woods

Since the 2006 inception of the Citizens'Election Fund, which is flush with money recovered from the sale of abandoned property and unclaimed bottle deposits, the state program has handed out $48 million to candidates in races from governor down to the General Assembly.

And the lure of public dollars for those seeking office at the state level is so irresistible, even millionaires are lining up for the taxpayer-subsidized campaign money.

Now, at least one high-profile Republican who detested the program has adopted the "if you can't beat them, join them" philosophy when it comes to the prospect of accepting public funds for their campaigns, a Hearst Connecticut Newspapers analysis shows.

"Who was it that said, `Would you sleep with me for $100?' `What kind of person do you take me for?' `Would you sleep with me for $1 million?' `Which way do we go?' " quipped Greenwich Democrat Ned Lamont, who spent $26 million of his cable television fortune running unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2006 and governor in 2010.

Lamont was paraphrasing a well-known quote by playwright George Bernard Shaw, about the world's oldest profession -- prostitution.

Money changes everything

The best example of a leading Republican who would appear to be having an epiphany about the public funding program is Tom Foley, a private equity manager from Greenwich who sank $11 million of his own money into running for governor in 2010, but fell 6,500 votes short to Democrat Dannel P. Malloy.

At the time, Foley went to court to try to block then-Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, his GOP primary opponent, from pooling his campaign contributions with his running mate to qualify for public funding.

The effort failed, with Fedele eventually receiving a $2.5 million grant, double the set amount for gubernatorial primary candidates because of Foley's high spending level in the bitter race.

"Listen, I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the government should pay for a political campaign," Foley told Hearst in early 2010. "Raising money is a very important part of running for office. It weeds people out who aren't successful at it. I think it's a flawed concept, and the old system worked fine."

What a difference four years makes for Foley, who, looking to avenge his narrow loss to Malloy, has publicly stated that he is open to going the public-funding route.

Foley's exploratory committee for governor is trying to raise the $250,000 in small contributions required to qualify for the program, which would make him eligible for $1.25 million in a primary and $6 million in the general election if he wins the GOP nomination.

Foley is catching flak both from the political left and the right for his potential change in strategy, including from Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, a GOP candidate for governor who awkwardly transitioned from being the running mate of Fedele to Foley during the 2010 campaign.

"I think it's a remarkable turnabout, isn't it?" Boughton said.

Said Lamont, "They were pretty outspoken that they were not going to take taxpayer money from a bankrupt state to pay for campaigns. Tom said that loud and clear four years ago."

There is no inconsistency, Foley said in a recent interview.

"I don't like the fact that public money is being used to finance campaigns, but if that's the only way you can win, I want to win elections," Foley said.

Multimillion dollar campaigns

Republicans gripe they have little choice but to participate in the program, which they say was fundamentally changed by the Democratically controlled General Assembly three months before the 2010 general election to help Malloy win the governor's race.

"I really don't think that under the traditional financing rules, unless a person is willing to supplement their campaign with a significant amount of their own money, they can be competitive with the public financing as currently structured," Foley said.

The Legislature, overriding the veto of then-GOP Gov. M. Jodi Rell, doubled the amount of the grant to $6 million from $3 million for those seeking the state's highest office in the general election.

It did so after a federal appellate court declared aspects of the program unconstitutional, including what were known as trigger funds that allowed publicly subsidized candidates to qualify for additional grants if their self-funded foes exceed certain spending thresholds.

Pitted against two prolific self-funders in Lamont during the Democratic primary and Foley during the general election, Malloy was the beneficiary of $8.5 million in public funding for his entire campaign.

"Even with that, Dan Malloy was outspent pretty significantly in the 2010 election," said Roy Occhiogrosso, who managed Malloy's campaign. "You know, the Republicans whine anytime whatever little advantage that they have is threatened. And, historically, that's been the one advantage that they have."

Those familiar with the system say Malloy could have reaped an additional $3 million had the trigger funds passed muster with the court.

All six of Connecticut's constitutional officers took advantage of the program in 2010, as did the GOP tandem of Fedele and Boughton.

"I think it gives people who don't have the ability to raise those dollars the opportunity to be competitive," said Fedele, a self-made millionaire. "I know it was helpful to me. I think if you're against it, you're against it. If you're for it, you participate in it."

Acknowledging that he voted against taxpayer-funded elections when he was in the General Assembly, Boughton is attempting to qualify for the grant for his nascent gubernatorial campaign.

"I've never been comfortable with the system they use to fund campaigns, but it's the system we have, and we have to work with it," Boughton said. "There's no way you'll be able to raise the money outside the system unless you're a multimillionaire. A blue collar Republican such as myself would never be on the radar. We couldn't fund the campaign."

In addition, the state awarded grants of just over $750,000 to both George Jepsen, who was elected attorney general, and incumbent Treasurer Denise Nappier. Nancy Wyman received $374,000, helping her to make the leap from comptroller to lieutenant governor.

"I think the participation speaks to the strength of the program," said Tom Swan, executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, a good-government organization. "I think it's been a very good investment by the state."

A veteran political operative who managed the Senate campaign of Lamont in 2006, Swan said there is wisdom in Foley's thinking about public funding, By raising $250,000 in donations of $100 or less, as the program requires, Foley can establish buy-in from a great many supporters, he said.

"It's arguably a smart, strategic move on his part," Swan said.

Had Swan been advising Lamont four years ago on his gubernatorial bid, he said he would have advised him against going it alone.

"That, I felt, was one of Ned's mistakes three or four years ago," Swan said. "Politically, I think that would have helped him much more, rather than looking just like a wealthy guy trying to buy an election."

In 2012, 273 candidates for the General Assembly, including 74 percent of incumbents, combined for a payout of $10.8 million from the Citizens' Election Fund.

"I'm a supporter of the public funding because it does level the playing field," Lamont said. "But it's a very leaky vessel."

Lamont said the rise of fundraising vehicles such as the Democratic and Republican governors associations, both state parties and political action committees have been able to skirt restrictions curbing special-interest money in campaigns.

"So it hasn't taken the corrupting influence of money out of politics by any means, but it does allow more people to compete," Lamont said.

Fedele echoed Lamont.

"The law's changed a lot," Fedele said, "so it's kind of a more wild, wild West."